welcome to nhk world "newsline." japanese government officials say cruise on a chinese navy frigget trained their weapons radar on a japan self-defense destroyer. they say it happened in the island they both claim. first time they confirm china has done this to an sdf ship. gonodera just spoke about it. >> translator: using this so-called radar, weapons radar, is an extraordinary act. the japanese government believes

that the situation could have gotten extremely dangerous. >> >> he says they laj aid protest with chi noose ministry. he revealed it happened on january 30th in international waters. he says the vessels were about three kilometers apart. he says defense ministry analysts are investigating a separate incident from earlier in january. they suspect a chinese navy frigget trained its weapons on a self-defense helicopter. japan and china have wenlocked in a dispute over the senkaku islands. china and taiwan claim the territory. the japanese government nationalized the islands last september. chinese surveillance ships have been navigating in and around or out of japanese waters near the territory ever since. the area around the islands is believed to be rich in natural resources. the disagreement has affected

diplomatic relations and trade. security analysts are trying to figure out the consequences of what happened out at sea. a former navy capital tin with japan's self-defense force and joins us here in our studio. so, how serious do you consider this incident? >> yes, it is serious act because using radar, which can control the weapon, means they will will attack the ships. usually the naval ships have two types of radars. >> okay. >> generally one is for navigation, or searching target. another is the fd radar used for controlling the weapons. this time the chinese ship used this radar pointed to japanese ships on the helicopter. >> fc radar means

fire-controlled radar? >> yes. >> why would chews on a chinese frigget train their fc radar on a destroyer? >> i think the -- there are two possible scenarios. >> okay. one is the chinese side just wanted to provoke japanese ships. another is the chinese ship proceed japanese action is dangerous so they want to warn japanese ship, wanted to stop the japanese ship's action. but in both scenarios -- this is the problem, i think, because if chinese side just wanted to provoke japanese, chinese side didn't recognize using fc radar was not serious but japanese side feel very serious, big deal.

another scenario, the japanese side recognize they were keeping the distance, safe distance. >> yes. >> but if chinese side feel that was danger, so they wanted to warn there was perception gap, too. i think perception gap is the most important thing in this issue. >> what needs to be done to diffuse this situation? >> i think the -- both japanese and china has to have activity to understand each other. or else similar kind of issues will occur even in future. >> what kind of activity are you talking about? joint naval exercises or -- >> i think difficult to conduct

right now, but both sides have to keep discussing and also personal exchange, and have to discuss with each other face to face. they have to see the operation on the ships so they can understand the perception of each other. >> a lot more interaction needed here. thank you for your time. bonji ohara, former captain with japan's maritime self-defense force. south korea authorities are trying to pin down details about north korea's planned income testimony. president young backe says they may have simultaneous test at two or more location. government officials have defected a lot of activity at poongke-ri test facility.

they say something that looks like a cover has appeared over the entrance of a tunnel on the western side. lee spoke about the plans with the "chosun ilbo" newspaper and spoke about a statement that the country will carry out a high-level nuclear test. lee said the north appears to be trying to develop smaller nuclear weapons. he warned the weapons could pose a threat if they found their way outside north korea or if they were mounted on intercontinental ballistic missiles. lee spoke about the united states, an ally of the south. he said u.s. policy toward north korea would undergo a fundamental shift if pyongyang proceeded. it's been a little more than a month since abe became prime minister and central bank head is already calling it quits. >> he was scheduled to do that, gene, but it came as a bit of a surprise today because he's

stepping down earlier than planned. bank of japan masaaki shirakawa is stepping down earlier than expected and he told reporters he informed the prime minister of his decision to resign. his term was scheduled to end on september 8th. he will be resigning with two deputy governors. >> translator: i conveyed my intention to resign to the prime minister. i told him, i want to step down early because the two boj deputy governors are leaving office on march 19th. our simultaneous resignations will open the way for the central bank to start with a clean slate on the same day. >> shirakawa became governor in 2008. he's been working to beat deflation with a string of monetary easing measures. in response to abe's demand, the

boj issued a joint statement with the government last month, setting an inflation target of 2%. now, the news of the boj governors' resignation has prompted investors to sell the yen. the markets are betting a new governor will take more easing measures that would accelerate the yen's decline. in fact, we're seeing quite a jump right now for the dollar. 0.6%, in fact, in london trading. right now at 92.95. the euro also gaining ground against the yen. we're seeing that at 125.90. now, earlier in the day the euro had slipped to the lower 124 yen level on investor worries about possible political shakeups in spain as well as italy. let's take a look at other urine yan stocks now. we're seeing trading is mostly higher at this hour despite concerns about the eurozone debt situation. the investors are hunting for bargains after the losses that were experienced on monday. we have the ftse 100 up by 0.5%. gains for the frankfurt market

of just over 0.1%. and paris' cac 40 up 0.9%. the picture in asia today, almost a sea of red with the exception of shanghai there. japan's nicky snapping a five-day streak. they hope authorities will take steps to stimulate the economy. looks like the yen's decline is proving to be quite a boone for toyota motor. the carmaker is predicting it will post its first operating profit in five years, thanks to the currency's weakness. toyota managers have revised their profit estimate upward for the fiscal year ending in march. they say they're expecting now a profit of about $1.6 billion. that's quite a change from just a few months ago. in november they were looking for a loss of more than $200 million. managers say the weakening of the yen since mid-november will improve export margins and push up profit by more than $1.5 billion. they also note that cost-cutting

efforts at factories have also been a bit of a help. managers have also raised the profit outlook for the toyota group by 9.5% in yen terms to more than $12 billion. that does include revenues from overseas operations. they're now more confident that the company will be able to maintain its domestic production target of 3 million vehicles. that's if the yen is able to stay at current levels. the u.s. justice department is expected to file civil charges against standard & poor's over its assessment of some mortgage-backed securities. s&p officials announced the justice department informed them about the lawsuit. the case will be focused on the agency's ratings of subprime and other mortgage-backed securities in 2007. that was, of course, leading up to the financial crisis. s&p officials say they deeply regret failing to fully anticipate the deteriorating market conditions at the time. but they do deny any wrongdoing. this is the first time the u.s. government will file a suit against a leading ratings agency

over alleged illegal behavior tied to the financial crisis. the justice department says s&p ratings were motivated by commercial considerations and not issued in good faith. japan has agreed to provide india's steel industry with energy saving technology. output is expected to jump five-fold by 2050 but energy conservation is a pressing issue because the industry is heavily dependent on fuel oil as well as electric power. the agreement came after a meeting in tokyo. it was tended by government and industry officials from the two countries. the technological know-how to be provided to india provides, among other things, how to convert heat and gas from steel mills into electric power. >> we hope that in the time to come we'll be second largest steel producer of the world. with this expansion, capacity is in mind, we do require better

technologies, efficient technologies. we are assured with the discretion with exports, we will be able to find the right technologies for india. >> under the accord, japan will also send experts to india to help build energy-saving facilities. that is going to wrap it up for biz tonight. let's get you a check of the markets. residents of beijing have woken up for much of the past month under a dome of smog. they've looked out their windows

to a haze of pollution. and residents of other cities are seeing the same thing. officials with the ministry of environmental protection say nearly half the population has been affected by serious air pollution. the officials said smog containing fine particulate matter has blanketed a quarter of china's land. they said about 600 million people are affected. the air in about 70% of chinese cities doesn't meet environmental standards. each year 15 million more cars take to the road. government officials say they want to reduce the density of fine particulate matter in the atmosphere by 5% by 2015. chinese media report a government-affiliated think tank says air pollution in beijing exceeded national standards for 27 days in january. not everyone in china is able to air their opinions. protesters have been demanding freedom of speech. a dispute between government officials and journalists triggered the rallies.

protesters say censors told editors of the newspaper to rewrite a new year's editorial. authorities reportedly promised to back away from kren sureship but protesters say they're not satisfied. here's the latest. >> reporter: the communist party wields heavy hand over china's media. what made journalist protest? we interviewed the man with inside information. he used to be an editor of nan cho mo and has access to the publish. he said the atmosphere in the editorial department changed after the guangdong party. >> journalists have to submit all stories to the propaganda department. the journalists are told what to

do and what not to do. all reports are subject to censorship. when i drop into the editorial department, many people confide their grievances to me. >> reporter: protesters for four days in front of the offices. many were young. openly they criticize government control over the news as well as the political system. among them was 24-year-old li huizhou. li comes from a farming village about two hours drive from

guangzhou. he became interested in western-style democracy while attending the university. often he accesses foreign media websites. li took part in protests, hoping for reform of china's media. >> translator: free exchange of opinions doesn't mean bringing down a particular person. i want to make china an equal society where people are free to have diverse opinions. >> reporter: reports say the chinese authorities promise to stop the censorship to rein in the protests. on january 18th, before lunar new year's day, journalists of nanfang zhoumo got together. they looked back on the past year. during those 12 months authorities made sure more than 1,000 articles never made it to print. awards for good reporting were handed out.

but on the issues of censorship the highest-ranked editors were silent. now nanfang zhoumo's reporters cannot comment about their job on websites or in public places. >> translator: everybody feels a lot of pressure. it will be settled shortly, but i can't say anything now. >> reporter: despite the restrictions, a reporter agreed to be interviewed incognito. >> translator: most reporters are dissatisfied with the outcome, but as long as we work with the chinese media, we have to accept restrictions. some journalists in the chinese media may believe in complete freedom of speech with no government interference. but those people would lose their jobs. that is the reality. >> reporter: more chinese citizens, including young people in particular, are having doubts

about their country's government-controlled media. there's a growing demand for more freedom in journalism. under the new leadership by xi jinping the chinese authorities would see more clashes with media. shun ishibe, nhk world, guangzhou. executives at taiwanese companies are finding success in the small things. they're establishing a growing presence, making products for components for other firms, something called contract manufacturing. they've learned they've got to be fast and flexible. nhk has more from taipei. >> reporter: the technological industry is one of the main industries for taiwan companies. companies focus on speed. this manufacturer is trying to develop a mirror-less camera. it's cutting-edge digit cal

camera, originally created in japan. now taiwanese firms have gained the know-how to design and make those products on consignment. makers must have facilities that allows mass production. they also need to be able to make the market needs of their clients. >> translator: the top priority is speed. speed can help develop technology and it can also help us take the lead in the market. >> reporter: to speed up work, this company delegates more authority to project managers. >> translator: we're already negotiating inspection methods with the japanese firm. a decision will be made soon. >> reporter: the maker plans to

begin full-fledged production in the first half of this year. >> translator: we'll shorten the time to get the parts we need by making them inside our group. this should enable us to manufacture products two to four months faster than japanese makers. >> reporter: authorities that support such firms are also placing a priority on speed. this research institute acquired many partners that connects technology to new products. they support the researchers to set up enterprises on their own. so far, more than 70 researchers of the institute are running start-ups.

and there's new developed crystal panel in only three years. he says a vivid images can compete with those made by older diode screens. the firm will begin mass production by the end of this year. >> translator: taiwan is currently full of vitality and new ideas. we hope to provide more useful products to consumers. >> reporter: as the academy, taiwanese companies cannot fully escape the negative impact, but the efforts are allowing them to become more prominent than ever. nhk world, taipei. city officials in tokyo and surrounding areas are rushing to put on tire chains and preparing

snow-thawing agents. rachel ferguson has the details. >> oh, yes, we're expecting a dose of winter here in tokyo but also much of japan as the new system comes across from eastern china. this is it here. it will be moving from north to south across much of the country, dropping about 15 to 20 centimeters in some places, more in the mountains, but even 10 centimeters is possible in the capital. it doesn't sound like a lot, but we're not really equipped for this kind of significant snow. when it happens, the road surfaces get very sliply and it could even be hard for cars to get up very slight gradients. it does cause quite a troublesome picture to appear in the capital city, so we'll be seeing that. thursday we'll look a lot clearer, but you will be seeing a big drop in the temperatures. also into thursday and friday, i should mention yet another system coming across, brewing over the sea of japan. it will be heading up to northern japan, hokkaido a.

let's take a look at these next three days in some key cities in the east of asia. 4 degrees in tokyo but recovering quite well toward the end of the work week. seoul dropping down to minus 8 for thursday, minus 8 6 on friday. as for beijing, dropping down to subzero low on thursday. and the same goes for you on friday, too. so, very much time to bundle up against that bitter cold. as we head into the americas, we'll see significant snow for the cass kasd, maybe about 30 centimeters. a system offshore sending those fronts in. toward the great lakes you'll see 5 centimeters of snow. a swift-moving system. shouldn't cause too much damage there. down toward the south, widespread showers monday along the gulf coast. that will clear up for you. then towards the end of the week, you'll have more rain and possibly some severe thunderstorms to deal with, too.

eastern and central portions up towards the north are looking bitterly cold. minus 17 in winnipeg. minus 3 in toronto. with 2 in new york city. minus 1 in chicago. not bad in vancouver at 7. 9 degrees in seattle. getting up to 15 in denver. and then we're in the mid-20s in houston as well as mexico city and also in miami. heading to europe, we've been talking about that large system dominating much of the continent. we're still looking at the same system. you can see very well rotating here in the clouds. let's pull that cloud away, see what's underneath. those gusts have intensified. wind gusts reaching up to about 120 kilometers an hour. the bulk of this precipitation is going to be snow. along the front you'll even find thunderstorms, so thunder in with that snow. as the system descends across the british isles and down toward the southeast here, it will be bringing that snow to

italy as well as the balkans peninsula. you'll see return to cooler temperatures and snow as well. you put two and two together already, the snow plus sthoes strong gusts means visibility will really be impaired. dangerous travel. i would definitely expect to see some delays if not cancellations at train stations and also at the airports. bringing your temperatures now on tuesday, cooling down to 4 degrees in london. 6, meanwhile, in berlin. minus 3 in moscow, down towards the south. we're looking at mid to low teens for athens, rome, madrid as well as lisbon. here's your extended forecast.

once again, japanese government officials say crews on a chinese naval frigget trained their weapons radar on a japan self-defense force destroyer. they say it happened in the east china sea near islands both countries claim and that it's the first time they've confirmed china has done this to an sdf chip. defense minister onoders just spoke about the incident. >> translator: using this ravrd, weapons radar, is an extraordinary act. the japanese government believes the situation could have gotten extremely dangerous. >> onerdo says japanese foreign minister has launched a protest with chinese authorities.

he revealed the incident happened on january 30th in international waters. he said the vessels were about three kilometers apart. he says defense ministry analysts are investigating a separate incident from earlier in january. they suspect a chinese navy frigget trained weapons radar on self-defense force helicopter. japan and china have been locked in a dispute over senkaku islands. chinese control the territory, japan and taiwan claim it. chinese surveillance ships have been navigating in and out of japanese waters near the territory ever since. the area around the islands is believed to be rich in natural resources. the disagreement has affected diplomatic relations and trade. we'll be back in 30 minutes with more news. i'm gene otani in tokyo. thanks very much for joining us. have a great day wherever you are.